Tuesday: Show Your Support for Buffalo's Food Trucks

Today at 2pm, Buffalo’s Food Trucks will be at the Common Council as the city’s legislature debates how the food truck law might be changed. The law sunsets in April and in the past 12 months, not a single complaint has been lodged from any source against any truck.

The trucks, however, find themselves up against some intransigent lawmakers and some brick and mortar restaurants that believe they have the right to regulate and control what the trucks do and how they do it. Also on the agenda is expanding access to downtown Buffalo Place locations and freeing Canalside up to the trucks.

If you enjoy buying food from Buffalo’s food trucks, please come and show your support.

Because in the end, this isn’t about whether or not the law is fair for the trucks or fair for the restaurants – this is about you. This is about you telling the city, the trucks, and the brick & mortars – I like having a choice; I like the product that the trucks offer and I want more access to more trucks – not more restrictive access to fewer trucks. We’ve already lost the Cheesy Chick grilled cheese food truck due in part to the high cost of doing business across multiple municipalities in WNY.

Ultimately, it might be time for a regionwide statute that is applicable to all municipalities in Erie County with a single fee paid. You want to encourage and help entrepreneurship in western New York? Then this should be the test case.

But for the time being, please show your support for your favorite food trucks. They need it, and the city’s lawmakers need to understand that this isn’t only about the trucks and the restaurants – it’s about you.

4 comments

I feel that a major problem with this city is contained in the lede of this story — in fact, in its first three words. Most suburban municipal and school boards meet at night, making it easy for the public to attend and voice their concerns, ask questions, or simply just hear firsthand what’s going on rather than read about it in the paper. Why can’t the city do this? Holding it in the middle of the day requires most people to take time off from work. It’s harder for them to attend on short notice, and it makes them less likely to do so when they have to give up their paid time off (if they even get it) and stop work on their projects. The city should hold their meetings at 7 or 7:30 p.m. like most municipal boards do. Then, they’d actually get some civic engagement.